The city of Panaji which includes Ribandar will elect 30 new Corporators. Under the current leadership at the CCP Goa’s capital city has only further miserably decayed. Panaji’s infrastructure is crumbling, the solution to the garbage crisis is nowhere in sight while increasing number of stray dogs and cattle has remained unattended. The poor state of the roads and traffic chaos is a constant reminder of the failure and incompetence of a CCP which has failed to punish those involved in that long pending infamous multi-crore Panaji market scam. On the pathetic state of the market less said the better. The CCP has only merrily been giving licences for new high rise buildings, but the problems, that blight the once beautiful Panaji city continues to fester and just gets worse.
The Smart City promise is yet another illusory daydream and just one more window of opportunity for the self-serving and greedy ruling politicians.
At the panchayat level, the gram sabhas enable the public to question and monitor the actions and misdeeds of their elected representatives. But at the CCP and the other municipal councils there is no such mechanism in place to give the public a forum to seek accountability. The CCP meetings may be open to the public but this is meaningless as the citizens cannot participate in the proceedings. The CCP Act needs to be amended to ensure that all the development projects are placed for public discussion and scrutiny before being approved. The thrust ahead should be towards zero tolerance to corruption and nepotism at the CCP.
